


a matter of when

by extasiswings



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Backstory, F/M, Fluff, Introspection, Prompt Fill, Timeless Fanfic Prompts, allusions to racism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-01 22:52:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11496420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extasiswings/pseuds/extasiswings
Summary: For the July Timeless Fanfic Contest. Prompt #3.It takes Rufus approximately thirty seconds to fall completely head over heels. Which means it also takes him approximately thirty seconds to become completely incapable of saying anything to Jiya that isn’t work related.(It’s fine. Totally fine. He’ll just pine from afar and occasionally make her laugh by making snarky comments about code or their coworkers under his breath. It’s fine)(It’s not fine; he’s hopeless)





	a matter of when

Rufus Carlin is not good with women. It’s just a fact. Need him to recalibrate the navigation system of a time machine? Sure, not a problem. Need him to have an actual conversation with a woman he’s interested in? Yeah...that’s not going to happen.

(It’s not like it’s _all_ women. He can talk to his mom just fine, and Lucy, and he’s had other female friends in the past. It’s just that ask him to flirt and his tongue ties itself in knots until even the nerdiest of pickup lines becomes impossible) 

Of course, part of the problem is that he doesn’t have a lot of practice. He’s always been a little bit of the odd man out—not coordinated enough to join the legions of other boys from his neighborhood in their dreams of getting out of Chicago through professional sports, not popular enough as a science nerd to fit in, and certainly not white enough to get any sort of pass on anything else in life. Trying to get into college by building robots and making sure his brother stayed out of trouble didn’t exactly leave a whole lot of time for chasing girls.

(There was one girl, when Rufus was fifteen. Alice, with her kind eyes and blonde hair, who never treated him badly and stood up for him when the captain of the basketball team would knock his books out of his hands in the halls. Alice, who needed a chemistry tutor and was more than happy to accept help from the smartest kid in class. Alice, whose father threatened him with a gun when he came home to find his daughter alone with a black boy, regardless of the fact that nothing was going on but schoolwork…)

(He never told his mother about that)

And then of course there’s what happens once he’s _in_ college. There are classes of course, all easier than he expects, although navigating the suspicion from people who think he shouldn’t be sailing through is an exhausting and never-ending process. He could tell Connor about it—Connor Mason who had swept into his life like wildfire and changed it completely, for the better but drastically nonetheless—but something keeps the words back whenever he opens his mouth to actually do so.

The point is, he has enough going on that relationships aren’t exactly a priority. He loses his virginity to Destiny from his second-year advanced robotics seminar, quick and fumbling in a closet at an end-of-the-semester party, but when he asks her out she kisses his cheek and says that he’s very sweet, but no. And that, with the exception of a few scattered blind dates set up by various friends, is it.

That is, until the day Jiya Marri sits down at the computer terminal next to his in Mason Industries and makes a joke about Star Wars.

(It takes him approximately thirty seconds to fall completely head over heels. Which means it also takes him approximately thirty seconds to become completely incapable of saying anything to her that isn’t work related)

(It’s fine. Totally fine. He’ll just pine from afar and occasionally make her laugh by making snarky comments about code or their coworkers under his breath. It’s fine)

(It’s not fine; he’s hopeless)

And then there’s Flynn.

It’s funny, because you wouldn’t expect time traveling terrorists to have any impact on romance, but hey, that’s probably the one thing he’s not going to complain too much about.

* * *

Their first date is a disaster. At least at first.

Rufus is so nervous that he pulls out all the stops, which he doesn’t realize is a mistake until they’re sitting awkwardly in an upscale restaurant being stared at by the waiters and he’s wishing either that his tie will succeed in its goal of choking him to death or that the earth will open up and swallow him to save him from this situation.

Oh god, they’re not even talking.

After another moment of awkward silence, Jiya sets her menu aside and looks at him.

“Do you actually want to be here?” She asks.

_What?_ “Of course I do,” Rufus assures quickly. _I’ve only wanted to go on a date with you since the first day we met_. 

Jiya bites her lip to hide a smile and shakes her head. “Not here with me,” she corrects. “Here, like, this place, here.”

_Oh_.

His face must give him away because she lets out a small laugh and nods.

“I like pizza,” she offers. “And Mario Kart. And there’s a great pizza place near my apartment.”

“I…” The small flash of panic that flickered in his chest when she started the conversation vanishes when Rufus gets the implication. And then he nearly sighs in relief. “I like pizza and Mario Kart, too.”

“Well then.” Jiya pushes back her chair and holds out her hand. “Let’s go so I can kick your ass.”

Rufus laughs. “Yeah, we’ll just see about that.”

They eat pizza on her couch and she does, in fact, kick his ass at Mario Kart.

It’s perfect.

* * *

Two months in and Rufus wakes up in Jiya’s bed and immediately shuts his eyes again, the groan that escapes him far too loud for his ears at the moment.

“Am I dead?”

“No, but you’re going to wish you were.” The mattress dips and Jiya settles with her knees on either side of his hips, not a hint of sympathy in the amusement tingeing her voice. “Probably in about ten minutes when the hangover really starts to set in.”

Rufus opens his eyes just enough to half-squint, half-glare at her through his lashes. 

“You drank more than I did,” he grumbles. “How are you so chipper?”

“I drank water before bed. Also, you mixed your liquors, babe. Rookie mistake,” she replies, pressing a kiss to his forehead before rolling off of him. “There’s water on the nightstand and I’m making breakfast. Try not to puke in my bathroom.” 

“If I do, I would like to point out that the tequila was your idea,” Rufus calls after her. She stops in the doorway just long enough to flash him a smile over her shoulder and his heart stutters in his chest.

_God, I love you._

(He hasn’t told her and he isn’t planning on it, not when it’s only been a couple of months. Hell, they haven’t even had sex yet, despite the fact that he’s slept over more than once. But he knows)

With a wince and a sigh, Rufus sits up and forces himself to down the glass she’d left for him along with the aspirin sitting next to it. He gets up despite his protesting head and stomach and brushes his teeth before padding out into the kitchen. Jiya hums when he slides his arms around her waist from behind and presses his face against her shoulder, flipping a pancake before leaning back into the embrace.

“I see you’re alive after all,” she teases.

The noncommittal sound that leaves him is muffled by her skin.

“Semi-conscious at least?” she offers. “Not totally a zombie?”

“Are we talking like iZombie zombie-status or like Walking Dead status? Because those are very different things…”

Jiya laughs and turns in his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck. “If you’re conscious enough to ask about what category of zombie I mean, I think you’re conscious enough to kiss me good morning.”

“Well, I suppose if you insist…”

(The pancakes burn. Neither of them mind that much. They spend the rest of the day on the couch watching bad horror films and judging them with scathing commentary)

(Rufus doesn’t tell her he loves her. But that’s okay. They’ve got time)

**Author's Note:**

> Because Riya needs more love <3
> 
> Title from Regina Spektor's "Dance Anthem of the 80's."


End file.
